Improvement in instruments for setting button-hooks



. f UNITED i STATES PATENT OFFICE.

`JoH-N'sl PALMER., 0E rRoviDENcE, RHODE IsLAND.

zMlwlPROVEMENT` IN INSTRUMENTSQFOR sETTiNG RUTTON-HOOKS."e

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 95,257; (lated September 1S, 1869.

.To `1f/ZZ whom. nifty concern:

`Be 1t known that 1JOHN S. PALMER, of the city and county of Providence, and Stateof where they are to be used; and I` do hereby4 declare that the `following is a full, clear, and exact description kof the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making y part of this specification, in whichf Figure l is a side view of my improved foroeps. Fig. 2is atop view of the same. Fig. 3 is aplan of the face of the jawB of Figs.- l and 2.

Fig. 4 is aplan of the face of the jaw l). Fig.` 5 is a front elevation and cross-section ofsaid jawaholdingmanutan-rockinposition. Eig. l l `6 is a` view ofthe said button-hook inserted or set in the cloth or other material. `Similar letters indicate corresponding parts e' in`all thejfigures.

j The article of lacing button-hook which my improved forceps or instrument is intended to insert is substantiallythat described and shown in Lettersratentoftheunited statesnutnei, granted to'William H. Shurtleff and Henry A.

Church, and dated June 5, 1,866, reference being had to saidLetters Patent for a more particular description of the same, the leading characteristics of which, however, are a button with ahooked neck on one side thereof, around j which a lacing (of a shoe, for instance) is drawn to close the opening in frontof the same, in the same `manner substantially as ispracticed with inserted eyelets; and,further, that said buttonhookis secured to the material with which it is to be used by means of anumber of spurs extending from the base of the button-hook, by

Y pressing the spurs through the material, and

. turning over' and clinehing them flatly against the opposite side ofthe material, for which operation my said forceps are especially designed; My said invention comprises two devices, one

for receiving andh'olding the button-hook iirmly duringthe operation of inserting it in the material, and the other for forcing the said spurs of the button-hook through the material, and

thenbendingtheir points inward toward each other, and bending and clinching them flatly against the material. rlhe first-mentioned deviceis arranged on the'jaw D of the forceps,

and the last upon the jaw B `of the same, when,

by shutting the two jaws together by gripping their handles H H with the hand, the button hook is quickly set in the material.

The first of these devices lon the jaw D con- `sists of a pair of angular jaws or grippers, S S,

Fig. 4, which receive and hold the button-hook Vby the neck,with the point or spurs t uppermost, as shown in Fig. 5, said grippers being for this purpose pivoted at the screws a a,nn

der-the plate l), and operated to grip the button-hook by the conical-pointed studf, Fig. l, which, by the closing of the two jaws ofthe forceps, its conical end enters between the rear ends, g g, of the grippers and presses them apart, thereby closing the gripping-jaws or ends S S upon the neck of the button-hook with a positively iirm grip, and each time holding the piece in the same position at the vertices c e` of the two jaws, said jaws being pressed apart, when the conical stud f is withdrawn,

by means of the springs j j, (the fixed ends of button-hook, which shape, however, may be varied to suit a greater or less number of spurs, or those differently arranged. This shell so formed slides on the inner punch, E, Figs. l and 5,when the two jaws of the forceps are brought together against the action of the stout fiat spring C, secured by screws 7L h to the upper side of the jaw B, with its free end widened for the accommodation of two screw-studs, 7c k, the end of which extend downward andbear against yeach side of the top of the shell G,to hold it at the lowest extremity of its sliding capacity or movement, and out of the way of the clinchingv l surfaces it' t' on the end of the fixed punch E,` so

that' with the'button-hook held spurs upward in the jaw l), as shown in. Fig. 5, and the material inserted between the spurs and the face l of the jaw B, by forcing said jaws together the openings in the face of the shell G will be pressed upon the upper side of the material,

which will cause the points of the spurs on the under side to penetrate the material and pass through the saine into the opening in the shell G iuitil they meet the angular-shaped clinching-surfacesi i i directly over each spur, and with a central inclination, as shown in Fig. 5, by means ofwhich, by a continuation of the force which caused the spurs to pass through the material, the spring G yields and permits the clinchiug-surfaces to descend and bend the spur-points inward and close against the 1naterial, as shown in Fig. 6, which is held iirlnly during the operation by the force of said spring between the faces of the shell G and the grippers S S, each closing of the jaws B and D performing the requisite operation for setting a button-hook -in the material, in the manner described.

The said button-l1ook, as represented, has three spurs; but it is obvious thatby simply changing the form of the shape in the face 0f the shell G, and that of the clinching-surfaces 12 i t', the same devices may be adapted to set Vbutton-hooks, or equivalent fastenings, with a greater or less numbcrof spurs. Said buttonl hooks also, as most convenient, are grasped and held by their curved neck between the angular grippers or jaws S S; but it is obvious that said grippers may be variously shaped to accommodate and provide for the holding of the same button-hook by the head or otherwise, or other button-hooks or fastening for gloves, shoes, corsets, &c., by giving a shape to said gripping ends S S suited to holding the peculiar piece irmly and in position to be acted upon by the device in the opposite jaw of the forceps,which secures the fastening in the material where it is to be used, and substantially in the manner described.

What I claim as my invention is- In combination with the jaws and handles oi' a pair of forceps, as described, a pair or set oi' jaws or grippers for holding the said buttonhook, and a punch, E, and sliding shell G, as described, the said devices co-opcrating as an d for the purpose specified.

JOHN S. PALMER. lVitnesscs:

Isaac A. BROWNELL, WILLIAM BRowNnLL. 

